Developmental guidance and student acquisition of social competence.

In a changing world, it is increasingly important to articulate what are the social emotional competencies that students leaving secondary schools need to acquire in order to be effective learners and citizens and how schools can facilitate the acquisition of such competencies. There is an emerging consensus that CASEL [1] has identified five of those core competencies. They are a) self-awareness, b) self-management, c) social awareness, d) relationship skills and e) responsible decision-making. There is not, however, a consensus as to how schools can facilitate the acquisition of these competencies. This paper will argue that each community needs to articulate the competencies they expect from their children and ensure that their schools implement a program of developmental guidance that helps them acquire these competencies. Developmental guidance is a combination of curriculum that teaches these competencies, experiences through which students can put them into practice, a systematic approach to developing and implementing a post-secondary plan for each student, and a way to assess the success of such an approach. In the same way that competence in literacy and numeracy is developed over a child’s career in school through a series of increasingly complex coursework, we need to implement systematic developmental guidance in all schools so that we more effectively prepare our children to take their place in a world that is changing as a result of technological and social developments. There are several barriers to implementing effective developmental guidance programs. One is the lack of consensus as to the role of schools in providing such training. Another is the lack of consensus as to what are those desired competencies. A third is the lack of resources made available to support such implementation.Accepted manuscrip

Executive Privilege in the Federal Courts

Apoptosis is one type of programmed cell death, important during tissue development and to maintain the tissue homeostasis. Apoptosis comprises a complex network of internal signaling pathways, and an important part of this signaling network is the action of voltage‐gated ion channels. The aim of this thesis was to explore the role of ion channels and the role of intracellular metal ions during apoptosis in Xenopus laevis oocytes. The reasons for using these oocytes are that they are large, robust, easy to handle, and easy to study electrophysiologically. Apoptosis was induced either chemically by incubation of the oocytes in staurosporine (STS) or mechanically by centrifugation of the oocytes. Ion currents were measured by a two‐electrode voltage clamp technique, intracellular ion concentrations were measured either directly by in‐house developed K+‐selective microelectrodes or indirectly by the electrophysiological technique, and apoptosis was measured by caspase‐3 activation. Paper I describes that the intracellular K+ concentration was reduced by about 30 % during STS‐induced apoptosis. However, this reduction was prevented by excessive expression of exogenous ion channels. Despite the magnitude of the intracellular K+ concentration, either normal or reduced level, the oocytes displayed normal signs of apoptosis, suggesting that the intracellular K+ reduction was not required for the apoptotic process. Because the intracellular K+ concentration was not critical for apoptosis we searched for other ion fluxes by exploring the electrophysiological properties of X. laevis oocytes. Paper II, describes a non‐inactivating Na+ current activated at positive membrane voltages that was upregulated by a factor of five during STS‐induced apoptosis. By preventing influx of Na+, the apoptotic signaling network involving capsase‐3 was prevented. To molecularly identify this voltage‐gated Na channel, the X. tropicalis genome and conserved regions of the human SCNA genes were used as a map. Paper III, shows that the voltage‐gated Na channel corresponds to the SCN2A gene ortholog and that supression of this SCN2A ortholog using miRNA prevented cell death. In conclusion, this thesis work demonstrated that a voltage‐gated Na channel is critical for the apoptotic process in X. laevis oocytes by increasing the intracellular Na+ concentration

A bivariate chromatic polynomial for signed graphs

We study Dohmen--P\"onitz--Tittmann's bivariate chromatic polynomial $c_\Gamma(k,l)$ which counts all $(k+l)$-colorings of a graph $\Gamma$ such that adjacent vertices get different colors if they are $\le k$. Our first contribution is an extension of $c_\Gamma(k,l)$ to signed graphs, for which we obtain an inclusion--exclusion formula and several special evaluations giving rise, e.g., to polynomials that encode balanced subgraphs. Our second goal is to derive combinatorial reciprocity theorems for $c_\Gamma(k,l)$ and its signed-graph analogues, reminiscent of Stanley's reciprocity theorem linking chromatic polynomials to acyclic orientations.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure